Ethan Hawke on following his heart and his new movie ‘Blaze’

Ethan Hawke was still a teenager when he appeared in the 1989 film ‘Dead Poets Society. He played a shy high school student brought out of his shell by an unconventional English teacher, memorably played by Robin Williams.

Later, Hawke appeared as floundering guitarist Troy in ‘Reality Bites,’ the 1994 film that became a touchstone for Generation X.

A year after that, he played Jesse opposite Julie Delpy’s Celine in Richard Linklater’s ‘Before Sunrise,’ the first film in the romantic ‘Before’ trilogy.

Aside from acting in many films and plays, Hawke has directed, and written screenplays and novels.

He directed and co-wrote his newest film ‘Blaze,’ a poignant story about the talented, but largely forgotten, country singer-songwriter Blaze Foley. An associate of Townes Van Zandt, Foley wrote songs that were covered by more famous artists including Merle Haggard and John Prine.

When we sat down with Hawke, he noticed a book about former CAA super-agent, Michael Ovitz, on a desk. He started to reminisce about early meetings at the agency, and the conversation took off from there.